Carbineer Archive

I wrote something similar a while back in response to someone who asked about which carbines to make. I'll post it, updated, here in a bit (jury duty's real boring), see how you like it.

typical might be misleading, dh17 on my server is 3.1, 98-212, whereas on tempest 2.3 68-172 can be had. Both are production lines so i don't know what's being changed around. In any case I'm thinking of drilling home dps and speed (to apply states as the things to watch for)

Listing "typical damage range" is very dangerous, it is better to list relative damage ranges as based on XX server and YY server.

Nova, could you do me a favor and put the DPS and HAM costs in color, and modify the table to look decent? I don't have any such editing abilities.

Weapon Breakdown (Brief).

Many new carbineers make the mistake of comparing weapons on the basis of their maximum damage alone. While this is a false assumption to make for any profession, maximum damage may be one of the least useful metrics for the carbineer. Unlike Commandos, we don't do enough damage per hit to kill targets with one lucky mega shot. As far as damage is concerned the most important stat is damage per second (DPS), which is calculated by the formula (max + min)/(2*delay). This tells you how fast you are dishing out damage, and relates linearly to specials damage unless you are hitting the speed cap, which is discussed elsewhere in this FAQ. Hence, a weapon that appears to have lower damage may actually have higher DPS, if it has enough of a lower speed. Learn to calculate the DPS (have a calculator handy or alt-tab if necesary) so you don't get ripped off. Also keep in mind

Secondly, the carbineer is the master of applying states, which favors quicker weapons, since states are applied per hit, not according to damage. A 1.0 speed carbine doing crap damage will apply states far faster than a 4.0 speed high-damage carbine.

Thirdly, HAM costs. Doing specials will hurt you in all 3 HAM pools, and as a carbineer, they hurt especially hard. Although you can pretty much ignore special costs when buffed, they're still important to keep in mind for three reasons:
1. you play unbuffed a lot ( a lot of part-time players I know are guilty of this)
2. Specials costs include the mind, which is not as readily buffed or healed.
3. Special costs are damage your opponent (PVE or PVP) gets for free. Especially with a weapon that can launch specials close to once per second, this drain can add up. Many a player has died from spamming specials and inadverdently draining their own HAM pool. Even when buffed, most players don't buff the mind, and that gets hit equally hard.
Pay attention to HAM costs, as there are weapons you rarely want to use unbuffed, and ones that lend themselves to unbuffed use.

Now Without Further ado, the list of weapon stats. These are culled from two of the better weaponsmiths, one on Tempest and one on Tarquinas. The raw stats (min/max speed) are given just as an example: they will vary greatly from server to server and on the choices of components that go into a weapon (I'll go into this in the Advanced section). For example, a dh17 from one is 3.1 98-212, from another is 2.3 68-172. The two are very similar in dps (100 vs 104, the faster one actually has a higher dps), but a comparison based on damage alone would erroneously point to the 3.1 speed carbine as the better weapon.

DH17

Yea just a list of damage and reload for 1 server will do fine as it allows the reader to compare the guns.

It does not need to be complicated either, a simple list of damage, reload, ham and advantages of the individual carbines will do nicely

Nova, could you do me a favor and put the DPS and HAM costs in color, and tweak the table as necessary to be legible?

Weapon Breakdown

Many new carbineers make the mistake of comparing weapons on the basis of their maximum damage alone. While this is a false assumption to make for any profession, maximum damage may be one of the least useful metrics for the carbineer. Unlike Commandos, we don't do enough damage per hit to kill targets with one lucky mega shot. As far as damage is concerned the most important stat is damage per second (DPS), which is calculated by the formula (max + min)/(2*delay). This tells you how fast you are dishing out damage, and relates linearly to specials damage unless you are hitting the speed cap, which is discussed elsewhere in this FAQ. Hence, a weapon that appears to have lower damage may actually have higher DPS, if it has enough of a lower speed. Learn to calculate the DPS (have a calculator handy or alt-tab if necesary) so you don't get ripped off. Also keep in mind

Secondly, the carbineer is the master of applying states, which favors quicker weapons, since states are applied per hit, not according to damage. A 1.0 speed carbine doing crap damage will apply states far faster than a 4.0 speed high-damage carbine.

Thirdly, HAM costs. Doing specials will hurt you in all 3 HAM pools, and as a carbineer, they hurt especially hard. Although you can pretty much ignore special costs when buffed, they're still important to keep in mind for three reasons:
1. you play unbuffed a lot ( a lot of part-time players I know are guilty of this)
2. Specials costs include the mind, which is not as readily buffed or healed.
3. Special costs are damage your opponent (PVE or PVP) gets for free. Especially with a weapon that can launch specials close to once per second, this drain can add up. Many a player has died from spamming specials and inadverdently draining their own HAM pool. Even when buffed, most players don't buff the mind, and that gets hit equally hard.
Pay attention to HAM costs, as there are weapons you rarely want to use unbuffed, and ones that lend themselves to unbuffed use.

Another thing to keep in mind is the ideal range, especially as novice. The accuracy is highest at the ideal range, and drops, sometimes dramatically at point-blank and max range (64m). While our ideal modifiers aren't as drastic as pistoleers or rifleman, it's still something to keep in mind.

Now Without Further ado, the list of weapon stats. These are culled from two of the better weaponsmiths, one on Tempest and one on Tarquinas. The raw stats (min/max speed) are given just as an example: they will vary greatly from server to server and on the choices of components that go into a weapon. For example, a dh17 from one is 3.1 98-212, from another is 2.3 68-172. The two are very similar in dps (50 vs 52, the faster one actually has a higher dps), but a comparison based on damage alone would erroneously point to the 3.1 speed carbine as the better weapon.

The layout is name, speed, min-max, dps, health cost/action cost/mind cost, ideal range, accuracy modifier at point-blank/ideal/64m.

DH17 3.1 98-212 50 DPS, 44/53/26, 35m, -20/+25/-60, AP0
DH17Snub 2.4 79-193 56.6 DPS, 25/27/13, 25m, -25/+3/-80, AP0
E11 2.6 72-153, 43 DPS, 29/37/18, 30m, -40/+2/-80 AP1
Laser Carbine 3.7 44-275, 43 DPS, 29/46/23, 50m, -45/+12/-40 AP2
EE3 3.0 81-184, 44 DPS, 41/33/18, 27m, -25/+3/-80, AP0
DXR6 3.7 112-179 39 DPS, 29/46/22, 22m, -20/+3/-90, AP1
Elite 3.6 108-186, 41 DPS, 30/48/24, 40m, -35/+16/-50, AP1
Nyms 4.0 103-217, 40 DPS, don't remember the rest.

The Nyms is a quest reward, so its stats are fixed, the only variable is the slice. Of these, The Nyms and DXR6 do acid damage, EE3 does heat, and the rest do energy damage. The nym's used to require no certification, but now requires novice carbineer. The pre-patch ones still work, though, my swordsman toon finds it sometimes useful.

DH17 is the weapon you should use to get the first box, then move onto a DH17 snub if you have the cash, though the difference is minor. A good snubby remains a good unbuffed weapon even for the master. The E11 in its stock state is useless. The Enhanced version adds a health bleed that makes it a bit more potent. It shines as a cheap PVP weapon as it has a tight range (not heavily affected by damage mitigation), and uses only 1 Krayt tissue as opposed to 4 or more for the better guns. the Elite is similarly useless in its stock state, though with the right enhancements it has the potential to be our best PVP weapon.

The Laser carb is your bread and butter PVE gun, and would do in a pinch in PVP against folks without damage mitigation. As soon as you get the third box, get yourself a laser carb. It's the armor piercing 2 that makes a difference, meaning it does 50% more damage on unarmored targets, and suffers no inherent penalty against medium armored targets whereas AP1 weapons have their damage halved and AP0 has their damage quartered. Against medium or heavy armored targets (basically all high-end mobs), it shines. The non-energy weapons are situational weapons against mobs with high energy resists but relatively low acid/heat resists.
Due to the lack of armor piercing, I would only use the EE3 on targets that are heat-vulnerable (hence AP0 rating against heat), or as a last resort on targets that have 100% energy and heat resists. The AP1 of the Nyms and DxR6 lend themselves to greater use, but in the end it's hard to beat the AP2 bonus of the laser, if you crank the numbers.

I should note that with the variety of stocks and barrels out there, stats can vary heavily. I once saw a (sliced) dh17 snub made without loot, that was something like 2.6, 300 max, but terrible (i mean like 70-80) ham costs.